Most accidents are avoidable, which is something that you don’t think of if you’re as paranoid as I am. When I got my new car, I was driving tense, even though I had never been in anything even close to an accident before, because I thought, hey, a cement truck might just swerve around any corner and crush me. In all likelihood, that’s not going to happen. In fact, the truth is that if you drive right, you can evade most accidents, even when it’s the other driver acting stupid.

The Federal Highway Administrations say that 23% of all car accidents are because of errors made at intersections. You know the feeling, when you’re at a four-way intersection with stop signs–‘wait! Who’s turn is it? Maybe I’ll just go…’ If you keep a careful eye out at intersections and go slow, you can avoid a lot of trouble.

Don’t get lost in your cell phone conversation or that new song. Paying close attention to the behavior of other drivers and pedestrians will help you keep in mind any clues that they might put you in danger.

Keep a distance of about 3-seconds from the car in front of you. Even if you usually drive safely, there’s no guarantee that the car in front of you might not suddenly hit the brakes. You need to have enough space between you and that car to allow you to hit your own brakes in such an event. Also, if the person behind you is following too closely, change lanes!

Always check up your vehicle. Even if it seems to be working great, something can go wrong at anytime. In my old car, my windshield wipers wiped fanatically, whether I had turned them on or not. One day, while I was out on the freeway, far from home and it was pouring down raining, they just stopped and wore out. I had to pull over and wait until the rain died down to keep driving. Don’t let this happen to you.

One of my pet peeves about other drivers is that they don’t use their turn signals. It’s one thing if you’re in a lane that only goes left, which is understandable, but there is an infuriating amount of people who don’t put on their signal before jumping into a small space in front of you, or even more ridiculously, turn on their signal after they’ve already changed lanes. More frequent use of these signals could save you from a world of trouble.

Most importantly, though, watch your speed. Just because you think it’s okay to whisk down the highway while it’s snowing, doesn’t mean you might not hit some ice that surprises you. Be careful!